Update: MLB announces new broadcasting deals with FOX and TBS

Oct. 3rd: MLB announced both agreements, which take effect in 2014. For us fans, the biggest piece of news is that the blackout rules for nationally broadcast FOX Saturday games will be lifted. If you live outside of the Tri-State area, you’ll now be able to click on MLB.tv to watch the Yankees on Saturdays regardless of who FOX is broadcasting locally. That’s awesome. Richard Sandomir has some more details as well.

Sept. 20th, 7:05pm: Maury Brown has the actual figures. Each club currently gets $23.72M annually in nationally television money, and that will increase to $50M with the new deals. So the revenue more than doubled just like that. Wow.

5:30pm: Via the AP, MLB is nearing new eight-year broadcasting contracts with FOX and TBS that will run through 2021. The new deals are expected to approximately double the revenue the league receives from the networks to about $800M. FOX gets to keep exclusive World Series rights while the two stations split the other postseason rounds.

At the moment, each of the 30 clubs gets something like $10-15M annually from the league’s broadcasting deals, but that figures to go up considerably with the new contracts. Not all $800M goes to the teams, but a huge chunk of it does. The Yankees already have more money than everyone else, so the extra revenue doesn’t really help them, but it will help direct competitors like the Rays, Blue Jays, and Orioles.